The first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture adopted the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources, the first ever international framework for the promotion of the wise management of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture, endorsed by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations member countries. The adoption of the Global Plan of Action has created unprecedented momentum for promoting the sustainable use, development and conservation of the world's livestock diversity. This article describes the first steps that countries have taken in its implementation.

Numerous threats to animal genetic resources for food and agriculture (AnGR) have been described in the literature. Yet knowledge regarding the threats facing particular breeds and production systems is patchy and often unavailable to relevant stakeholders. Lack of knowledge about threats often goes hand in hand with a more general lack of knowledge about the characteristics, use, management and distribution of livestock breeds. The study of threats should be an integral part of national surveying and monitoring strategies for AnGR. Field surveys are an opportunity to draw upon the knowledge of livestock keepers and other local stakeholders and to map breed distributions. Insights from the field should be integrated, together with information on economic trends, policy developments and the distribution of risks associated with epidemics and other disasters, into a broader understanding of threats. If a large-scale survey of stakeholder opinion is envisaged, it is important to be clear about the objectives of the exercise when designing any classification framework to be used for data collection and analysis. Analysis of threats should aim not only to record the presence or absence of particular threats but also to provide a better understanding of their spatial and temporal dynamics and how they are affected by context (location, production environment, human attitudes and objectives, etc.).

There is a wide international consensus that there is an urgent need to compile national inventories of animal genetic resources, supported by periodic monitoring of trends and threats, to underpin their effective management. This paper gives an overview of how to set about this task, primarily through national strategies but also through ad hoc surveys. It is important to establish stakeholder involvement at an early stage of setting up the national strategy so that the surveys can be made more effective and the emergent actions can be more readily implemented. There are a wide variety of tools available for surveying and monitoring, ranging from mapping expeditions to household surveys and censuses, encompassing methods associated with rapid rural appraisals. Tools have different strengths and weaknesses and their relative cost effectiveness will depend on objectives. Performing a baseline survey is a key step because it serves as a reference point for future monitoring; however, to be cost effective, more rudimentary surveys may be needed beforehand to establish reliable design parameters. Calibration of one method to another is an important task when several methods are being used for monitoring. Planning and design, communication, sensitive field work, data management and an analysis appropriate to the objectives are all necessary elements of a successful survey.

The need to provide policy-makers with succinct, yet informative, messages is widespread in biodiversity management, and has led to the development of various “indicators” that can serve this purpose. While global data on the status of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture (AnGR) have been made available in a number of publications, the issue of developing a global indicator for AnGR has come to prominence only relatively recently. This paper describes the policy background to these developments and reviews initiatives in AnGR indicator development at national and regional levels. It also outlines some of the issues raised at an expert meeting on indicators organized by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in January 2010. To date, AnGR indicator development has largely been restricted to Europe. Globally, options are restricted by the limited availability of data. The expert meeting favoured an indicator set that describes both the relative abundance of native versus non-native breeds and summarizes breed risk status. The former will require a new breed classification system that is acceptable to countries and applicable globally. The risk-status categories of approximately 64 percent of reported breeds are available in the Domestic Animal Diversity Information System, but a lack of regular updates of countries' breed population data means that trends cannot be described adequately at present.

Within the EURECA project (Towards self-sustainable EUropean REgional CAttle breeds), we interviewed a total of 371 farmers of 15 local cattle breeds in eight European countries. Besides collecting data on farmers, land use, herd composition and economic role of cattle, we aimed at understanding farmers' motives and values in keeping local cattle. The most frequent first reason to keep the local breed was productivity, followed by tradition. When comparing the local breed with a mainstream breed, only in four breeds was productivity considered the same, while in three breeds more than 50 percent of farmers valued the local breed as more profitable. The local breed was valued as always superior or the same on functional traits. Farmers were asked which type of appreciation they thought representatives of various stakeholders had on their local breed: a positive appreciation was observed in 33 percent of farmers. On average across breeds, 39 percent of farmers expect to increase the size of their herd in the next few years and 5 percent plan to give up farming. The degree of dependence of farmers on economic incentives was estimated by asking farmers their expected behaviour under three scenarios of change of subsidies. Most farmers demanded activities for promoting local breed farming. The results are discussed in terms of breed sustainability and conservation.

Local breeds and minor species are hardy and able to thrive in harsh conditions. Their adaptive traits and unique characteristics (coloured wool or hides, extra-fine fibre, meat or milk with special tastes) offer opportunities for the marketing of speciality products and sustainable food production in marginal areas. This study discusses eight initiatives from Africa, Asia and Latin America that help communities to produce and market various products for niche markets: milk and dairy products from dromedaries; cashmere, wool and handicrafts from goats, sheep and Bactrian camels; and meat, meat products and handicrafts from goats and sheep. The main strategies were to seek new markets for existing or entirely new products (rather than trying to exploit existing markets). Most initiatives had some form of branding or labelling, and two had protected their products with geographical indications. Such marketing initiatives can be started with limited capital inputs but are skill and knowledge intensive. They require strong commitment to overcome seasonal fluctuations in production, the lack of infrastructure and services, and difficulties in institution building. But when well planned and carefully managed, they can help conserve breeds as well as provide a livelihood for people involved in the value chain, allowing actors earlier in the value chain – livestock keepers and small-scale processors – to capture a greater share of the value of the end product than they would by trying to serve a mass market.

Many countries have implemented cryoconservation to help better manage their animal genetic resources (AnGR). Multicountry gene banks may have a role in an international effort for the management of AnGR. To better assess such activities, the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on AnGR of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture invited the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to report on the status of national and international programmes for storage of AnGR. FAO thus implemented a survey on this topic in January 2010. The questionnaire comprised 16 questions on various matters related to AnGR conservation, including multinational gene banks. Valid responses were received from 166 persons from 90 countries. Many countries practise AnGR conservation, with in situ programmes being the most common. The number of cryoconservation programmes is about half the number of in situ programmes for most livestock species. Fully operational gene banks were reported in about 20 percent of the countries, and plans for a gene bank within 5 years were indicated in an additional 50 percent of the countries. Lack of financial support and low priority in national livestock policy were the most commonly cited obstacles for gene banking. Very few multinational gene banks were reported, but interest in such activities was high. Aversion to multicountry gene banks was noted in only about 10 percent of countries. Among the factors contributing to the paucity of multicountry AnGR gene banks are a lack of funding, regulations on international exchange of genetic material and a lack of consensus on procedures for the operation of gene banks.

The field of economics of agrobiodiversity (ABD) conservation and sustainable use has developed rapidly during recent years. A state-of-the-art review found that advances have indeed eased methodological/analytical constraints. A wide range of decision-support tools and analytical approaches have been successfully tested. These have been shown to provide good estimates of value and be useful for answering policy-relevant questions.

Yet despite this, this field would appear to have had relatively little influence on “real-life” ABD conservation policy design and implementation. An analysis of the national reports in the FAO's (2007) State of the World's AnGR (SoW) supports this view and reveals, at best, a patchy recognition of the importance of valuation and the potential future role of economics in the design of cost-effective conservation programmes. Potential reasons for this include a lack of awareness regarding the existence of appropriate methods and decision-support tools, data availability issues and a lack of capacity to both collect the necessary data through participatory mechanisms as well as to carry out the subsequent analysis. Translating the existing recognition of the importance of economics within the Global Plan of Action on AnGR into a mainstream activity will require significant awareness raising and capacity building.

The contraction of animal genetic resources on a global scale has motivated countries to establish gene banks as a mechanism to conserve national resources. Gene banks should establish a set of policies that ensure they are complying with national laws. The two primary areas of consideration are how gene banks interact with the owners of the livestock from which they are collecting samples and the relevant national or international health standards. With respect to dealing with livestock breeders for the purpose of germplasm acquisition, private property rights are the most common legal issue that will come into consideration while building collections and distributing stored material. National animal health standards may determine which animals may or may not be collected and to what extent the germplasm can be used. Internationally, the country's overall health status will determine the type of testing necessary before, during and after collection to ensure the movement of germplasm across international boundaries and through the normal protocols of animal germplasm transfer. Policy-makers will need to evaluate if the current structure of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) regulations will allow the development of bilateral backup collections or if waivers should be given to facilitate the genetic security afforded through gene banking.

A content analysis of 167 country reports submitted for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was conducted to determine the extent to which protected areas are recognized as means of conserving domestic animal diversity. For countries in which protected areas were reported to help conserve the diversity of domesticated animals, additional details were sought from a review of related literature. Protected areas were seldom discussed in country reports and were most often mentioned as means to protect biodiversity in general, wild relatives of domesticated animals or wild game species. The most frequently mentioned way in which protected areas conserve domestic animal diversity is through initiatives that utilize indigenous breeds of livestock in nature conservation programmes. By offering farmers financial incentives for these ecological services, protected areas help offset potential economic disadvantages of raising indigenous breeds that may be less productive in industrial environments. Additional incentives to raise indigenous breeds are supported by protected areas such as niche marketing of organic food and fibre, establishing “seed herd” programmes and tourism promotion. Many opportunities exist for protected area managers and authorities responsible for conserving animal genetic resources for food and agriculture to fulfil mutually compatible objectives.

The Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources calls for action to conserve the wild species that are related to livestock. The global conservation status of wild species is monitored through the IUCN Red List. This shows that at present 21 percent of the world's 5 488 mammal species and 12 percent of its 9 990 bird species are threatened with extinction. In contrast, a greater proportion of wild relatives of the major mammal livestock species are at risk of extinction: 44 percent of sheep and goats, 50 percent of pigs and 83 percent of cattle. More wild relatives of the chicken are also at risk (25 percent) than bird species overall. These figures indicate the need to pay much more attention to the relationship between the conservation of biological diversity and human well-being. Therefore, there is an urgent need to coordinate responses to the loss of biodiversity and the reduction in variation that may prove vital for animal genetic resources in the future. Intergovernmental meetings being held this autumn offer the prospect of beginning this process.

Livestock keepers' rights (LKR) is a concept developed by civil society during the “Interlaken process” and is advocated for by a group of non-government organizations, livestock keepers, pastoralist associations and scientists who support community-based conservation of local breeds. This study provides an overview of the rationale, history and content of LKR and suggests that biocultural or community protocols are a means of invoking the principles of LKR even in the absence of their legal enshrinement. It is concluded that besides striving for legal codification of LKR its principles should form the basis of pro-poor and ecological livestock development in general.

European countries are individually and in collaboration carrying out active work on animal genetic resources (AnGR). The region has a very good starting point for work on AnGR: The breed concept was developed in Europe; current European mainstream breeds are derived from local breeds and, in many species, have further formed the core of the international breeds; there has always been very active research in Europe on farm animal genetics and breeding, including sustainable utilization and management of variation.

Since the 1970s and 1980s many European countries have been paying attention to local breeds and have saved many of them from total extinction. In quite a few countries, the conservation work has been supported by cryopreservation. In the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) coordinated process, Europe has actively contributed to assessing the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources and will continue to implement the Global Plan of Action. There are now national action plans in most of the European countries.

The European consumption of animal products has changed very little over recent decades. At the same time, production has become very intensive. Among other driving forces, the development of agriculture is steered by the EU policies. The last decade has seen new kind of thinking and measures directed towards an overall consideration of rural development. This has given room for the revitalization of many local breeds. The aim is to have schemes that promote the self-sustainability of local breeds. The EU also has a very ambitious research programme to support these aims while enhancing the overall sustainable production and management of biological resources.

The European Regional Focal Point for Animal Genetic Resources (ERFP) is a common forum for the coordinators of European national programmes on AnGR. There are also many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the animal sector. These NGOs and networks are most relevant to raising awareness about the importance of values of AnGR and in enhancing activities that contribute to conservation and sustainable use of AnGR.